The Little Boat on Trusting Lane

Description

An affectionate satire, The Little Boat on Trusting Lane is a story of human connection and the potential of community and friendship to heal. Rashida Murphy, author of The Historian's Daughter, says 'the nutmilk chai latte and hemp brigade have a new champion.' Richard runs his alternative healing centre from an old houseboat in a scrapyard on Trusting Lane. The Little Mother Earth Ship provides spiritual sustenance at regular meetings of The Circle of IWEA. While Richard plies his new age wisdom, disciples Finn and August keep the whole enterprise afloat. But warning letters from the council are piling up down the side of the fridge and the arrival of a new mystic Celestiaa Davinaa is about to rock their world. How many alternative healers can one small boat hold before the enterprise capsizes? Simone Lazaroo said, 'This novel made me laugh, cry and wonder . . . Her characters' problems are both regional and global, their insights hard-won, yet often humorous.'

Mel Hall is a writer and musician based in Walyalup (Fremantle), Western Australia. Her fiction has been longlisted for major writing awards, such as the Peter Carey Short Story Prize (2019), the Fogarty Literary Award (2019) and the Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award (2018). Her novella The Choir of Gravediggers was published by Ginninderra Press in 2016, and her short fiction has appeared in Westerly, The Sleepers Almanac and other Australian journals.

'This novel made me laugh, cry and wonder. Mel Hall perceptively observes individuals' struggles for meaning and emotional recuperation in an idiosyncratic yet recognisable urban Western Australian community. Her characters' problems are both regional and global, their insights hard-won yet often humorous. A sharp yet empathic and ultimately life-affirming story.' --Simone Lazaroo 'Delightfully subversive, tenderly insightful; the nutmilk chai latte and hemp brigade have a new champion.' --Rashida Murphy